Unlocked vs locked bootloader??

[rootinghelp]

Hello everyone. I've been looking into rooting and all for a little while now, and there's something that's really confusing to me. I read that there's a developer note 4 for verizon that has n unlocked bootloader, and I don't understand this. I know my note 3 has a locked bootloader, but I see that it can be rooted, so what's the difference? I really don't understand if it can be rooted, why it matters.

Also, I've looked into cyanagenmod, and it seems it's really easy to load it onto my phone, but does it work on a phone with a locked bootloader etc? Does it have to be rooted first? It's all quite confusing and seemingly contradictory.

 

[Rukbat]

Rooting means that you (or an app) can run under administrative access.

An unlocked bootloader means that you can install a different recovery ROM or an unsigned Android ROM.

Two totally different things.

 

[rootinghelp]

Rooting means that you (or an app) can run under administrative access.

An unlocked bootloader means that you can install a different recovery ROM or an unsigned Android ROM.

Two totally different things.

Oh, so a phone that's been rooted that has a locked bootloader can't use custom roms?

 

[Rukbat]

A phone with a locked bootloader can't use unsigned ROMs. Since it's easier to get the combination to your bank's vault than it is to get the data to sigh a ROM from most manufacturers, that means that the phone is limited to modifications of the stock ROM. Rooted, different look, different launcher, bloat removed, etc.

BTW, you root the ROM, so flashing a new ROM has nothing to do with the old ROM having been rooted, unless you're using some badly done ROM-flashing program that needs root. People who can't use the manufacturer's software tool to flash a ROM shouldn't be flashing ROMs, they should be reading and learning.

 

[rootinghelp]

A phone with a locked bootloader can't use unsigned ROMs. Since it's easier to get the combination to your bank's vault than it is to get the data to sigh a ROM from most manufacturers, that means that the phone is limited to modifications of the stock ROM. Rooted, different look, different launcher, bloat removed, etc.

BTW, you root the ROM, so flashing a new ROM has nothing to do with the old ROM having been rooted, unless you're using some badly done ROM-flashing program that needs root. People who can't use the manufacturer's software tool to flash a ROM shouldn't be flashing ROMs, they should be reading and learning.

Oh wow. So the phone doesn't have to be rooted to flash a ROM? I never knew that. I just assumed it did. Thank you for the information

 

[Rukbat]

Running a program that needs root access to flash the ROM needs root access before you flash the ROM, but if you need that kind of hand-holding to flash a ROM, you shouldn't be. It takes 10 minutes to learn to use whatever tool the manufacturer supplies - in this case it's even easier, about 2 minutes to learn to use Odin (for Samsung devices).